Knicks acquire Chandler from Mavs, waive Billups

GREENBURGH, N.Y. (AP) -- The anchor of the Dallas Mavericks' defense now centers one of the league's best frontcourts.

Tyson Chandler joined the New York Knicks on Saturday, in the belief that joining, Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire means he's not done competing for championships.

The Knicks have long needed a defensive presence, and Chandler plans to provide it.

"I know what my job is coming here," he said. "I know I came here to defend. I'm going to defend the rim, I'm going to rebound, I'm going to get extra shots. And I think if we play on both ends and play as a team, the sky is definitely the limit for this squad."

Chandler gets a four-year contract worth about $56 million after coming to the Knicks via sign-and-trade as part of a three-team deal. The Knicks sent Ronny Turiaf and cash to the Washington Wizards and reserve guard Andy Rautins to the Mavericks, and there were other picks involved.

The Knicks also waived point guard Chauncey Billups and designated him as their amnesty player so they could afford Chandler.

The 7-foot-1 Chandler helped the Mavericks win the NBA championship last season, averaging 10.1 points and 9.4 rebounds, and at first hoped he would return to Dallas. But the Mavericks wanted to keep other options open, and when the Knicks emerged as a surprising option, they quickly become Chandler's preferred one.

"The Knicks were never on my radar. I'd never seen them as being a possibility and once I got word that it could potentially happen, they became my No. 1 priority was to get here," Chandler said.

It took some work, notably using the amnesty clause to waive Billups so his $14.2 million salary wouldn't count for salary cap or luxury tax purposes. Billups was their starting point guard last season after coming with Anthony in a trade from Denver and was expected to return, with the Knicks picking up his option for this season in April when they would have owed him just $3.7 million had they waived him within five days after the season ended.

"We didn't want to get rid of Chauncey and when I talked to him today I told him, `Chauncey, it's not like we're waiving you because we don't want you. Look at it as what it is. We traded you basically for the starting center on the NBA championship team,"' interim general manager Glen Grunwald said.

Long undersized - Dwight Howard blocked more shots than they did as a team two seasons ago - the Knicks eagerly welcomed the 225-pound Chandler. His No. 6 jersey - guard Landry Fields switched to No. 2 so Chandler could have it - covered most of Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan's body when he held it up for a photo.

Chandler later posed alongside Anthony and Stoudemire, two of league's elite scorers. Now the Knicks have a stopper, too.

"Last year was an amazing run and I think after you win a championship it's hard to go backwards," Chandler said, "and the only thing I wanted in free agency was an opportunity to continue to chase that dream and continue to win championships."

Though it was often believed the Knicks wouldn't be spenders this offseason while saving their money for free agency in 2012, Grunwald felt adding a player such as Chandler was a better strategy for building a contender.

"When we looked at things this past summer and over the fall, we said it'd be great to get someone like Tyson Chandler. Well, we got Tyson Chandler, so that's even better," he said.

"Our plans haven't changed. Tyson was the top of our list in terms of free agents this year. We took a look at everything, we felt this was the best move for us to build a team both in the short term and in the long term."

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Hawks swoop for late win as big guns boom

(Reuters) - Jamal Crawford banked in a three-pointer with 5.7 seconds left to seal a 88-84 win for the Atlanta Hawks over the visiting Orlando Magic Friday.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Lakers ambushed the New Orleans Hornets 100-86 on the road to join in the Hawks in taking a 2-1 lead in their best-of-seven NBA playoff series.

The Boston Celtics mercilessly overpowered the New York Knicks 113-96 to ruin the excitement of the first playoff game at Madison Square Gardens in seven years.

In Atlanta, Crawford scored 18 of his 23 points in the second half including the game-clinching three in the dying seconds of a nip-and-tuck contest.

"I just tried to get to my comfort zone, my sweet spot," Crawford told reporters. "I felt pretty good getting there. "I thought I got a good look, and it just happened to go down for me."

Al Horford gave the Hawks the lead at 85-84 with 46.6 seconds left.

Atlanta led for much of the game, but the lead changed four times over the final two minutes following an altercation which led to the ejection of Atlanta's Zaza Pachulia and Orlando's Jason Richardson.

"I thought we played with much more energy in the second half, and that got us back into it," said Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy. "But this is the playoffs and you can't play 24 minutes of defense."

Joe Johnson scored 21 points for Atlanta and Dwight Howard led the Magic with 21 points and 15 rebounds.

In New Orleans, the Lakers pounced on the Hornets in the opening quarter and pulled away in the final period to regain home-court advantage.

Kobe Bryant led the Lakers with 30 points and Pau Gasol recorded a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Carl Landry led the Hornets with 23 points and Chris Paul 22.

In New York, the Celtics sprinted to a 22-5 lead eight minutes into the game and led comfortably from start to finish to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the series.

Boston will attempt to complete the sweep Sunday.

Paul Pierce led the Celtics with 38 points, Ray Allen hit eight three-pointers among his 32 points and Rajon Rondo had a triple-double with 15 points, 11 rebounds and a Celtics franchise playoff record 20 assists.

The Knicks bench outscored the starters led by Shawne Williams 17 points. Carmelo Anthony scored 15 points on just 4-for-16 shooting from the field.

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Celtics beat Knicks; Mavs and Magic also win

(Reuters) - The Boston Celtics overcame an inspired performance from Carmelo Anthony to beat the New York Knicks and take a 2-0 lead in their NBA playoff series on Tuesday, while Orlando and Dallas also grabbed victories.

Orlando's Dwight Howard, who scored 46 points in a Game One loss to the Hawks, poured in 33 points and grabbed 19 rebounds as the Magic beat Atlanta 88-82 to even their series at 1-1.

In Dallas, the Mavericks got 21 points off the bench from Peja Stojakovic to compliment 33 from Dirk Nowitzki as the home team held off the Portland Trail Blazers 101-89 to take a 2-0 series lead with Game Three set for Thursday in Portland.

With New York's Chauncey Billups out due to a sore knee and Amare Stoudemire sitting out the second half because of back spasms, Anthony stepped up and matched a career playoff high with 42 points and pulled down 17 rebounds.

However, Anthony's outstanding individual effort was not enough as the Celtics hung on for a 96-93 win.

After back-to-back heart-breaking losses, the Knicks head home to the 'Big Apple' for Games Three and Four on Friday and Sunday, needing at least one win to avoid being swept from the first round.

The Knicks clawed their way back to a 93-92 lead with 19 seconds to play before Kevin Garnett dropped the go-ahead basket with 13 seconds left on the clock. He followed that up with a big defensive play at the other end of the court, diving on a loose ball with just four seconds left.

Rajon Rondo paced the Celtics with 30 points.

"We have so many weapons," Rondo told reporters. "Kevin wanted the ball and I told him to be ready and he came through for us on both ends of the floor."

Orlando avoided falling behind 2-0 in their series with the help of a 10-1 run to close the third quarter that gave the Magic a 65-54 cushion.

Jameer Nelson had 13 points for the Magic while Hedo Turkoglu had 10.

Jamal Crawford had 25 points coming off the bench to lead the Hawks and Josh Smith had 17.

Portland were looking to return home with the series tied 1-1, but Nowitzki led the Mavs to a 28-17 fourth-quarter advantage to fend off the visitors.

Stojakovic, who was released by the Toronto Raptors before the Mavericks signed him in January, drained five three-pointers and was a point short of his season-high.

LaMarcus Aldridge paced the Blazers with 24 points and 10 rebounds.

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Rondo gets aggressive as Celtics take 2-0 lead over Knicks

(Reuters) - Rajon Rondo is the smallest of the Boston Celtics starting lineup but the guard proved his mettle Tuesday as Boston inched past the New York Knicks.

The fifth-year pro scored 30 points, a career post-season high, in Boston's 96-93 win, and backed it up with four rebounds and seven assists against a Knicks team depleted by injuries.

Boston's win gave them a 2-0 lead in the Eastern conference best of seven series. The action switches to New York's Madison Square Garden Friday.

Rondo, prince of the assist, rarely stars on the Celtics' well-rounded roster, where forwards Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett often steal the scoring show and Ray Allen regularly hits laser-like three-pointers.

"That's a hard job, that point guard job," said Celtics coach Doc Rivers of Rondo. "When they're playing you to drive, they're trying to force you to shoot, and your most effective way is penetration through trees. It's hard."

At age 25, versus an average age of 33 for the rest of Boston's starters Tuesday, Rondo brings fresh legs to the team. Even so, going up against "trees" takes its toll.

"I got tired in the first quarter," said Rondo. "I was trying to push the pace and I got a little winded. After that, my wind was fine."

Fourteen of Rondo's points came in the first period. "I thought Rondo was aggressive," said Boston's Garnett. "He and Paul (Pierce) had it going very early. I thought he got into a nice rhythm."

Rivers said the coaches had talked about Rondo attacking the basket for lay-ups. "It was good to see he can do that, that he's going to do that. That was great."

Still, Boston got a break Tuesday, Rivers said.

"We won the game. That's all we get out of this ... my guys played hard, but I thought they were lucky to win. (New York) had no Stoudemire, no Billups."

Knicks starting guard Chauncey Billups was out with a strained left knee. Amar'e Stoudemire suffered back spasms after a mistimed dunk during warmups. The forward played just 17 minutes for four points.

"I could hardly move," said Stoudemire, still in too much pain to sit during the post-game press conference.

With his teammates down, Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony, a four-time NBA All Star, stepped up to score a season high 42 points and 17 rebounds.

The Celtics briefly held a 10-point lead in the first quarter, but Anthony reeled Boston in time and again in a game featuring 22 lead changes.

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Celtics rally for spirited victory over Knicks

NEW YORK (AP) – Kevin Garnett had 24 points and 11 rebounds, Rajon Rondo added 13 points and 12 rebounds, and the Boston Celtics scored the final 10 points for a spirited 96-86 victory over the New York Knicks on Monday night.

With blood flowing and bodies flying, the Celtics showed the Knicks they will be tough to beat next month if this was in fact a preview of a first-round playoff series.

Paul Pierce scored 21 points and Ray Allen had 15 for Boston despite a poor shooting night and a nasty cut on his head that briefly forced him from the game.

Carmelo Anthony scored 22 points for the Knicks, but neither he nor Amare Stoudemire had a field goal in the fourth quarter. Chauncey Billups had 21 and Stoudemire finished with 16.

Boston (50-19) matched its victory total from last season after coming into play tied with Chicago for the best record in the Eastern Conference, seizing control in the final minutes with its trademark tough defense the sensational all-court play of Rondo, who made the tiebreaking basket with 3:10 left.

The Knicks lost for the sixth time in seven games and fell to 7-9 since acquiring Anthony last month, and as with Miami's occasional struggles this season, has created concerns about how long it takes a team to figure things out when it has put superstars together.

"Hopefully two, three years," joked Celtics coach Doc Rivers, who has his reasons for that wish.

The longtime Atlantic Division rivals could be headed toward a meeting in the first round of the playoffs. New York entered in seventh place in the East, a half-game behind Philadelphia.

This one started to resemble a playoff scrap in the second quarter. Boston's Troy Murphy had to come out of the game with a bloody nose, and Glen Davis crashed to the court after Anthony caught him in the head with an elbow after grabbing a rebound.

Then Allen had to leave briefly in the third quarter after his head was bloodied by Jared Jeffries' elbow while going for a rebound. Allen wiped blood from his head on the court with a towel, not far from where his mother was seated next to Spike Lee in the front row of courtside seats.

The Celtics took the hits and kept coming, trimming New York's lead to 69-63 on Glen Davis' layup at the third-quarter buzzer. They were down nine after Billups' four-point play with 7:26 remaining but stormed back with 13 straight points, going ahead 86-82 on Garnett's jumper with 4:20 to go.

The Knicks tied it, and after Rondo's layup with 3:10 put Boston back ahead, Anthony was cut above the eye after colliding with Rondo trying to steal and inbounds pass. Rondo came up with it as Anthony fell to the court, then found Davis for a layup and a 90-86 edge with 2 1/2 minutes left.

Pierce knocked down a jumper for a six-point lead, and Allen put it away with a dunk to make it 94-86 with 40 seconds to go. He closed it out with two free throws.

A day after the Knicks managed nine points in the first quarter at Milwaukee, their worst opening period since scoring a franchise-low five on Nov. 21, 1956, against Fort Wayne, Stoudemire had nine by himself after 12 minutes Monday as New York built a 25-22 lead.

The Knicks scored the first seven of the second, capped by consecutive baskets by Ronny Turiaf, to open a double-digit cushion. It grew to 45-30 on Billups' 3-pointer with 3:41 remaining in the half, and the Knicks took a 51-37 advantage to the locker room.

Notes: The teams meet again in Boston on April 13 in the regular-season finale. ... Shaquille O'Neal worked out on a stationary bike before the game, though it's still unknown when he will return from a sore right leg that's sidelined him since Feb. 1. ... The Knicks started Turiaf at center, the third straight game they had a different starter at that position

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Douglas fires Knicks to 3-pt record in Grizzlies

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Toney Douglas shot a sparkling 29-point haul off the bench to help the New York Knicks set a franchise record for three-pointers in their 120-99 rout of the Memphis Grizzlies on Thursday.

The second-year guard Douglas also tied the franchise's individual three-point record, his ninth successful shot landing with 17 seconds to play and handing the Knicks (35-32) their record-setting 20th for the night.

"The dude at the scorer's table just said, 'Hit one more three.' I was like, 'Huh?' I didn't really realize it would tie the (individual) record," Douglas told reporters.

"He just said to hit one more three, but I didn't really pay any mind. I was just playing my game and taking what the defense gave me."

Douglas's shooting masterclass allowed the Knicks to hold on to sixth place in the Eastern Conference with a half-game lead over the Philadelphia 76ers.

Carmelo Anthony added 28 points while Chauncey Billups finished with 18 points and eight assists for New York in his best performance since returning from a thigh injury earlier this week. The Grizzlies (37-32) trailed for most of the match and fell 18 behind after three quarters as their hold on the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference was trimmed to just one game. Mike Conley scored 16 points and had six assists. Zach Randolph put in 14 in the loss, Memphis's third in four games.

New York shot seven three-pointers in the third quarter to keep the Grizzlies at bay.

"We tried to play zone and we tried to go a little smaller, but they're a very talented team and nothing worked for us the two times that we played them," said Memphis coach Lionel Hollins.

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Howard's 30 powers Magic over Knicks

ORLANDO, Florida – Dwight Howard had 30 points and Jameer Nelson scored 14 of his 26 in the final quarter as Orlando defeated the New York Knicks 116-110.

Howard also had 16 rebounds for the Magic, who nailed five of their eight three-pointers in the fourth quarter to close out a seven-game homestand on a winning note.

Ryan Anderson finished with 16 points for Orlando, who trailed 58-47 at halftime.

Chauncey Billups and Amare Stoudemire each scored 30 points, and Carmelo Anthony had 25 points for the Knicks, who failed to capitalize off Sunday's dramatic win over Miami.

Nelson helped lead a second-half surge for the Magic as the teams combined for as whopping 97 free throws. The Magic made 36 of those.

The win was the Magic's third consecutive and fifth in a half dozen contests.

The Knicks dropped to 2-2 since acquiring Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups from Denver in a blockbuster trade. (abs-cbnnews)

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Spurs stop slumping Knicks for 8th straight win

(AP, GMAnews.tv) - SAN ANTONIO — DeJuan Blair says he no longer thinks when he plays. It's exactly what the San Antonio Spurs, who've built championships on brains, want to hear.

Blair had 18 points and 13 rebounds in his usually spry and rambunctious fashion, and the Spurs took revenge on the slumping New York Knicks to win their eighth in a row, 101-92 on Friday night.

"I'm just not thinking," said Blair, explaining his third double-double in his last four games. "I was thinking too much at the beginning of this season."

Tim Duncan had 21 points and 16 rebounds, Tony Parker added 21 points and 13 assists, and the Spurs avenged one of only six losses this season. That was in New York earlier this month, when the Knicks wore out the NBA's top team and put up a season-high 128 points on them.

New York sputtered in the rematch and tumbled to a fifth consecutive loss, despite moving Ronny Turiaf back into the starting lineup over Wilson Chandler.

The switch didn't instantly pay off like coach Mike D'Antoni wanted. Moving Turiaf off the bench made the Knicks bigger, but it didn't help New York against Duncan and the undersized but indefatigable Blair who, at just 6-foot-7, has been San Antonio's starting center all season.

"Got to win a game. That's all it is," Knicks forward Amare Stoudemire said. "We're fine, we're fine. We're in a slump, but we'll be all right."

Stoudemire's night summed up the Knicks' struggles. The starting lineup change moved Stoudemire back to his preferred position of power forward, but he scored 18 points on a dismal 8-of-25 shooting and had his streak of 20-point games snapped at 26. He also had 15 rebounds.

Raymond Felton led the Knicks with 23 points.

San Antonio (37-6) won its 17th straight at home, but the Spurs won't see much of the AT&T Center between now and March.

Having finished this perfect four-game homestand, San Antonio plays 12 of its next 13 on the road, largely thanks to its annual Rodeo Road Trip that begins Feb. 1 in Portland.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, who admonished his defense after the Knicks ran them up and down the floor in New York on Jan. 4, was in a better mood this time after holding New York to just 38 percent from the field.

"The bigs tonight, especially Timmy and DeJuan, were fantastic with Amare," Popovich said

Turiaf had 10 points and 10 rebounds in his return to the starting lineup, but Chandler was ineffective off the bench. The Knicks' second-leading scorer this season scored just six points.

It was the third double-double in four games for Blair, who scored 22 in a victory over Toronto on Wednesday. Blair was 8 of 12 from the floor, none bigger than his twisting, driving layup with 5:44 left that had an exasperated D'Antoni signaling timeout.

"I love playing pick-and-roll with him," Parker said. "He's running to the basket and his timing is great."

New York had shaved a once 14-point deficit down to four just moments earlier. It was as close as the Knicks would get, and left New York tasked with trying to avoid matching its season-high losing streak on Saturday night against Oklahoma City.

D'Antoni hoped a shake-up to the starting lineup would pay immediate dividends.

He changed up the starting five, in part, because the Knicks had been 5-1 with the lineup of Turiaf, Stoudemire, Danilo Gallinari, and Landry Fields and Felton in the backcourt.

D'Antoni said he was just trying what worked before.

"We are playing like when we started coming out of the 3-8 start," D'Antoni said. "We play this hard and good things will happen."

Manu Ginobili scored 16 points and Gary Neal added 10 off the bench for the Spurs. 

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